Field of the Invention
The invention relates to creation of casual social games.
Technical Background
Computer implemented games are a well known game category which allow a player to interact with a computing device to cause the processor to perform certain calculations and typically display a result on a screen or other display device.
Different types of game have evolved from classical arcade games into games that can be played on a handheld device such as a smartphone or personal computer. Some games are also connected to the Internet and the player can play against or compare their score with other users in multiplayer mode.
A common genre of casual games is so-called ‘match-3’ games. This is a type of tile-matching game where the player manipulates tiles or game objects in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and the corresponding subset of tile-matching games is referred to as ‘match-three games’.
Games have previously been developed and programmed on an individual basis with all or most elements being built up specifically for that game. Our approach uses the model-view-controller (MVC) software architecture pattern to create games of a specific type. MVC separates the representation of information from the user's interaction with it. This can be implemented in several ways, some of which are already known.
This approach drastically simplifies the way games can be built and also enhances the quality of the games created using this approach since fewer parts of the game have to be recreated for each new game of the same or similar type.